Living in the Dark
by Staven Cross
Summary: We all know the stories of Ranma Saotome and Faye Valintine. But what if Ranma had been in the same tragic accident as Faye, and Faye has decided to vist him when he is reawaked? UPDATED WITH CH.4!
1. Chapter 00

AN - This is a Ranma 1/2 - Cowboy bebop crossover, I do NOT own any of the characters in this story, and I'm not making any money off this either, so don't sue me! In this fic, I took the Ranma timeline, and simply moved it forward to Faye's time, however all of the Ranma series, except for the failed wedding. In the Bebop world, This takes place during the episode that Faye is looking for her past.   
  
Living in the Dark  
  
A fan fiction By Phip  
  
He looked outside the porthole, just as the captain announced what was happening, the world went dark.  
  
*****  
  
He awoke slowly, hearing muffled voices as his eyes started to focus, he saw a middle aged black man wearing a white overcoat and a metal disk sitting on a headband standing over him, talking to a woman who was obviously a nurse, though he couldn't remember how he knew that.  
  
He tried to think about the last thing he remembered.... and came up blank, he couldn't remember anything! Just as he was starting to panic, he felt a wave of nausea run over him as he rolled to the side and emptied his stomach onto the floor.  
  
  
  
"Oh dear, we're going to have to clean that up later..." The doctor mused.  
  
"W-Where am I? Who am I?" The man asked the doctor.  
  
"Hmmm? You're in my hospital of course.... As for who you are, I'm afraid you're going to have to find that out for yourself." The doctor said.  
  
"Oh...."The young man replied.  
  
  
  
He fell back to sleep and didn't wake till two days later.  
  
*****  
  
When the young man awoke, it was to an unfamiliar room, but for some reason it didn't unsettle him as he looked about the barren gray room, a small potted plant was to his left on a little end table, along with some odd looking objects that he assumed were for the use of the staff.   
  
  
  
  
  
"Ahh,you're awake, good." The young man looked up at the woman wearing a very revealing yellow top and pants, covered with a red jacket. She approached him from the doorway.  
  
"Uhm, who are you? Do I know you?" He asked her with a small amount of hope in his voice.  
  
"Actually, thats why I'm here, my name is Faye Valentine, I was wondering if perhaps you knew me..." Faye responded, frowning slightly.  
  
"I-I can't remember anything.... I know that that's a toothbrush.... but I don't know HOW I know...." The boy puzzled, pointing at a small cylindrical object, with a rounded tip.  
  
"Hmm, actually, that's takes your temperature." Faye said.  
  
"What??" the man asked.  
  
"Do you even remember your name?" Faye asked.  
  
  
  
He thought good and hard for a minute about it, he could remember it had something to do with "wild" but couldn't remember the rest, all of his memories were all blurry.  
  
  
  
"No, I can't.." He frowned.  
  
"It says here you're name is Ranma Saotome." She said, reading from Ranma's medical chart.  
  
"Ranma?" It sounded vaguely familiar to him.  
  
"So, Ranma, you feel like going down to the cafeteria and getting something to eat?" Faye asked him.  
  
"I-I think so" Ranma blushed as his stomach gave a loud growl in agreement.  
  
******  
  
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you come see me if you don't know who I am?" Ranma asked as he shoveled food into his mouth.  
  
"Huh?" Faye responded, having been to shocked by the boy's.... no... man's eating habits to listen to his question.  
  
"I said, why did you come visit me if you don't even know who I am?" He repeated.  
  
"Oh, well you see, I was frozen just as you were after the accident, and I don't remember much of my past. I found the listing for who all was on the ship with me, and of the survivors, you're the only one I could track down." She shrugged.  
  
"Oh..." He replied.  
  
  
  
Now that Faye looked, even in the green scrubs the hospital had given to him, he looked very fit, and muscular, but it was in more of an athletic build, rather than a body-builder's. Even though he didn't remember anything, he seemed to move with an uncanny grace, as if everything he did was poetry. How he seemed to spend the very least amount of effort needed in order to do anything. He reminded her of Spike, in an odd way.  
  
It was then she noticed he had obviously said something, the way he was looking at her, waiting for her reply.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Huh?" she said intelligently  
  
He sighed. "I said, what do you mean by 'frozen' and what accident are you talking about?"  
  
"Ohhh" She took a swig of water to hide her blush of embarrassment.  
  
"Well, it would seem that the ship we were on exploded, and only a few survivors were found. All of us were put into hibernation until we could be healed properly." Faye told him.  
  
Ranma mulled over it for a while.  
  
"Ok, so lemme get this straight." He said, "The spaceship you and I were on exploded." She nodded, "And us survivors were frozen" Again she nodded. "Creepy." He shivered.  
  
"It's not as bad as you think." She told him.  
  
She seemed to think about something for a few seconds.  
  
"I'll let you stay on my ship for a while, in case any of you're memories return and you can tell me what you know, it might help me remember my own past." she said, putting her finger to her cheek and raising her eyes in thought.  
  
"Uhm... Ok, thanks." Ranma grinned sheepishly.  
  
"Anytime." Faye winked.  
  
******  
  
Next time: Ranma meets Spike, and Jet blows his top!  
  
See you cowboy..... 


	2. Chapter 01

Chapter One  
  
Ranma looked on in awe at the small space fighter that rested in front of him. The glistening metal, and dome of the cockpit as it drew his eyes in the sunlight, curving perfectly down to the vehicle's weapons; a pair of machine guns on either side, mounted under the cockpit on jutting supports. And above the machine guns resided rocket launchers.  
  
  
  
Faye looked behind her as she climbed into the craft.  
  
"You gonna sit there and gawk all day or get in?" She said.  
  
  
  
Ranma blushed and grinned sheepishly as he followed her into the ship, it was a tight fit for the two, the ship being made for only one. However the two managed, it took some moving around so that Ranma wasn't pressed up against something he shouldn't be.  
  
In the end, they settled on Ranma sitting on the edge of Faye's seat, pressed against the glass.  
  
"Uhm, Faye-san?" Ranma questioned.  
  
"Hmm?" She replied.  
  
"Well uh... I don't.... well... I mean..." He stuttered.  
  
"Spit it out already." Faye said.  
  
"I need some clothes....." Ranma blushed, "I can't go around wearing scrubs forever can I?"  
  
Faye face faulted, nearly sending the ship into a building as she flew over the city, she managed to pull up just in time, however, and realized what Ranma had said was true.  
  
"I'm sure Spike or Jet has something you can wear...." She trailed off.  
  
******  
  
"Welcome baaaackkk!" Ed shouted as Faye's ship docked with the Bebop as it floated in the Ocean.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Faye said as she walked into the ship.  
  
"Who's that?" Spike asked as he walked in, lighting a cigarette and nodding at Ranma.  
  
"Ranma Saotome." Ranma said.  
  
"You a fighter?" Spike asked him.  
  
"I-I don't know....." Ranma told him, thinking for a second.  
  
  
  
Spike grunted and walked up to Ranma, when he was about 3 feet away, he threw a quick jab at him, intending to test wither Ranma's uncanny grace was an act.  
  
Ranma sidestepped and responded, sending a round house back at his attacker. It was easily blocked as Spike smirked at Ranma's look of amazement at what he had done.  
  
"Well, if you don't know, you're body sure does." As he turned around, walking off.  
  
"Spike," Faye stopped him. "The kid needs some clothes."  
  
"Yeah, I noticed." Spike replied uncaringly.  
  
"Well, give him some of your's." Faye told him  
  
Spike grimaced, "Yeah, yeah, yeah... Common kid." He motioned for Ranma to follow him to his room.  
  
"So, you gonna be staying with us?" Spike asked as Ranma was trying on a set of clothing.  
  
"I guess so... Faye-san told me to stay here until I got my memories back.." Ranma struggled with the black tie, Spike having only one red one.  
  
"You better talk to Jet then, Its his ship after all." Spike said as he moved forward and fixed the tie for him, and stepped back, surveying Ranma.  
  
"Not bad." He said, Ranma blushed. Ranma wore the same light blue suite as Spike, being a few inches shorter than Spike, it was a bit baggier, not that he seemed to mind, he wore a black tie loosely around his neck, with a white undershirt, and stuck his hands in his pockets.  
  
"You wanna spar?" Spike asked.  
  
"Spar?" Ranma questioned.  
  
"Yeah, its like fighting, but more friendly like, ya know?" Spike told him.  
  
"Uhm, ok..." Ranma agreed.  
  
Spike led Ranma to the deck, it was large enough for their purposes.  
  
"You ready?" He asked Ranma, who stood there for all the world looking like a novice fighter.  
  
"I guess." Ranma replied, as Spike charged at him, opening with a quick combo, jabing at Ranma's chest, then dropping low to sweep his legs out from under him.   
  
Ranma moved like a man possessed, blocking the punch and leaping back out of range of the leg sweep, and charged back in with a roundhouse that was ducked. Spike tried an upper cut just as Ranma was pulling his leg back in from the kick. Ranma did a quick back flip, and stretched out his legs and caught Spike in the chin as he recovered from his uppercut, sending him skidding back across the deck a few feet.  
  
  
  
"Not bad." Spike grinned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, there was obviously more to this boy then meets the eye.   
  
"Thanks." Ranma said, still looking slightly unsure of himself, but with more confidence than he had at the beginning.  
  
"Lets try that again eh?" Spike grinned again as he charged back at Ranma, he dodged to the left when Ranma attempted to stop his charge by doing a quick one-two punch combo aimed at Spike's chest.  
  
This left Ranma wide open when Spike punched hard at Ranma's ribs. Ranma shrugged off the blow and swung his arm out from the its extended position, catching Spike unawares with a backhanded fist to the side of Spike's head.  
  
Spike staggered back a few feet. It would seem he was going to have to go all out in order to beat this kid. He flowed into a different style that favored finesse over strength and charged Ranma again, this time he started with a jumping snap kick, catching Ranma in the chin and sending him flying. Ranma flipped in the air and hit the ground running back at Spike. He hit the ground and sweeped Spike's legs from under him.  
  
Spike turned it to his advantage as he kicked his legs out from his horizontal position in the air and hit Ranma in the chest just as he was standing up.  
  
This led to both fighters falling to the ground a few feet away from each other.  
  
"Hey Spike!" Jet called from the doorway just as both oh them got back to their feet.  
  
"Yeah?" Spike said.  
  
"Who's the kid?" Jet asked, motioning at Ranma.  
  
"Faye brought him, said he would be staying a while." Spike told him.  
  
"Oh, ok" Jet turned to walk back into the ship and stopped suddenly.  
  
"He WHAT?!" Jet turned back around and ran up to Spike.  
  
"I dunno, ask her." Spike walked back inside, "Good fight kid."  
  
"Thanks." Ranma grinned. This turned out to be a mistake as it drew Jet's attention to him.  
  
"Just what the hell are you smiling at?! Do you realize how much it will cost me to feed you?!" Jet screamed at Ranma as he walked inside, Jet hot on his heels.  
  
"Hey man I don't know anything about this ok? All I know is that Faye told me to stay here." Ranma replied, making calming gestures in Jet's direction, even though it didn't seem to be working.  
  
"Whats all the shouting about?" Faye asked as she walked into the room.  
  
"YOU!" Jet screamed at her, causing her to stop in surprise and stare at Jet.  
  
"Me?" She asked.  
  
"What the hell were you thinking? He can't stay here! I mean look at him! He probably eats as much as Spike does!" Jet ranted.  
  
"More actually." Faye responded, examining her nails casually .  
  
"MORE?!" Jet looked like he was about to blow an artery in his neck.  
  
"Why would you tell him he can stay here if he eats MORE than Spike?!" Jet couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it, pointing at Ranma and flailing his arms like a crazy man.  
  
"Didn't you see how the kid fights? I bet with him on our team, we can easily take out almost any target we want." Ranma opened his mouth to ask Faye about how she said it was until his memories returned, but was silenced at the look she gave him, he decided he would let this play out.  
  
This settled Jet down some as he thought about what she had said. The kid DID fight well, even if he didn't seem like the type to use a gun, but that could be fixed easily enough.  
  
  
  
"Alright.... I'll let him stay, for now." Jet allowed.  
  
He turned on Ranma, "But if you're gonna stay here, and gonna eat here, you're going to damn well WORK here, understand?"   
  
"No problem man, really, I'll do whatever!" Ranma said.  
  
"But uh, what kinda work is it that you guys do?" Ranma asked.  
  
"We're bounty hunters." Spike said as he came back into the room.  
  
"Oh.... What's a bounty hunter?" Ranma asked, scratching his head.  
  
"We hunt down criminals that the government puts a bounty on and turn them in, and we get rewarded for it.  
  
"Oh... ok..." Ranma mulled over this fact.   
  
"So... What's next?" Ranma asked as he accepted his new line of work.  
  
"Now, we teach you how to shoot." Jet said.  
  
"Shoot?" Ranma said the word with a small amount of disgust.  
  
"Look kid, if you're gonna be a bounty hunter you have to know how to shoot ok?" Jet glared at him.  
  
"Fine.... But I don't have to like it!" Ranma said as he followed Jet back onto the deck.  
  
*****  
  
"Now, aim, take you're time, ease the trigger back, thats it. Now, hold your breath and take the shot." Jet told Ranma as he aimed at the buoy sitting in the water about thirty meters out. A crack rang out and a small splash of water was seen just bare inches to the right of the metal buoy.  
  
Ranma sighed as he failed yet again.  
  
"Not bad kid, you're doing pretty good for your first time with a pistol. Now, try again. Jet was surprised as Ranma managed to hit it this time, a small amount of sparks shooting up from the point of impact.  
  
  
  
Ranma grinned in victory as he lowered the pistol.  
  
"Hmm, well I think thats enough practice for now, lets go on back in." Jet said.  
  
"Ok." Ranma said as he followed Jet back into the Bebop, he sat down on the couch and pet Ein.  
  
"Whats the dog's name?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Ein, Einy-Whiny-Biney-BOOO" Ed responded from her place in front of her computer, moving her arms in ways most break dancers couldn't even dream of doing.  
  
"Uhm, ok and who are you?" He asked.  
  
"Ed is Ed." she said, twirling around to look at Ranma and pointing at herself.  
  
"Right...." Ranma said.  
  
******  
  
Ranma walked by a small room with bonsai tree, Jet was pruning them carefully.  
  
"Uh, hey Jet, is it ok if I take a shower?" He asked timidly.  
  
"Sure thing kid, shower's down that way" Jet said, pointing down the hall.  
  
Ranma passed Faye as she returned from the shower in a robe with a towel around her hair. Just as he was about to close the door to the bathroom, he heard Faye yelling.  
  
"Jet what's wrong with the shower?! There's no hot water!" Faye yelled at Jet.  
  
"There's no hot water, the head is broken...." That was all Ranma heard as he shrugged and closed the door. He could dear with a little bit of cold water.  
  
As Ranma turned the faucet on, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable for some reason. He shrugged and disrobed, setting the clothes Spike had lent him to the side and stepped into the shower.  
  
He felt very odd for some reason, it seemed as though everything had just gotten several inches taller. He shrugged, probably just nerves, he told himself. He started to wash his hair with shampoo, or at least he thought it was shampoo.  
  
When he dropped the bottle on the floor of the shower he noticed something odd....... He had breasts.  
  
He stood up and rubbed his eyes, it must be a trick of the light or something.... Right?  
  
It wasn't.  
  
Ranma very slowly reached up a touched them, he gasped at the sensation it gave him. He gulped when his hands reached lower, hopeing beyond hope that it was still there and these beasts were just a figment of his imagination.  
  
When he couldn't find what he was looking for, he felt light headed. When it hit him that he had obviously turned into a female, he screamed. He screamed at the top of his lungs, he screamed for all the pain, all the suffering he didn't know he had suffered, for the life that was taken from him, for the life he didn't want but had received. He screamed for the loss of his manhood, which meant so much to him, and he couldn't figure out why.  
  
Just as the door burst open and Spike rushed in, prepared for an attack, but instead saw a naked woman, he stopped suddenly.  
  
"S-Spike...."She said. Then she fainted and fell, Spike caught her mere instants before she would have hit her head on the wall, causing a concussion.  
  
  
  
"Who are you?" Spike whispered to the girl in his arms. It was then that the others rushed into the room.  
  
"What the hell is going on?!" Jet roared.  
  
"I dunno! Someone screamed and I ran in and found her!" Spike grew uncomfortable holding such a beautiful naked woman in his arms.  
  
"Where's Ranma?" Jet asked.  
  
"What?" Spike responded, trying to keep his gaze from wondering to the girl.  
  
"Ranma said he was gonna take a shower, but I don't see him anywhere, where could he have gone?" Jet wondered.  
  
"How should I know? Just move so I can get this chick outta my arms already! She ain't as light as she looks.  
  
  
  
Jet moved to the side and let Spike through, carrying the boxum young red haired girl out of the bathroom, he set her on the couch and laid a blanket over her to cover her nakedness.  
  
******  
  
Ranma awoke a few hours later, feeling oddly refreshed. It was then that he noticed that the others were all standing over him, even Ein was on the corner of the couch sniffing him oddly.  
  
  
  
  
  
"What you all lookin' at?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"Who are you?" It was Faye that spoke first.  
  
"Are you kidding? Its me, Ranma!" he said with a small amount of fear in his voice, he didn't want to be forgotten already! He didn't even know who he was!  
  
Then he noticed something odd about himself..... His voice seemed to be off... He looked down at his chest and saw a pair of large, round, breasts staring back at him.  
  
"But.... Ranma's a guy...." Jet stuttered.  
  
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"Ranma screamed, causing the others to jump in surprise.  
  
"Would you quit doing that! Jeez. Why do you keep screaming anyway!" Faye asked annoyed.  
  
"L-lookit me! I-I'm a girl!" Ranma couldn't believe what he was seeing... He couldn't remember much, but he KNEW he was a man, however the pair of breasts he now owned seemed to lay waste to that statement.  
  
"OhmygodohmygodIhavebreasts!" Ranma jumped to his feet, causing a certain part of his new anatomy to move painfully, and the eyes of the current males in the room to move in time.   
  
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" Ranma screamed as he pointed at the four of them and their dog.  
  
"Look chick, we didn't do anything to you ok? You screamed and I found you in the bathroom, for that matter, how the hell did you get in here in the first place." Spike demanded as he crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
  
  
Ranma backed into the corner of the room and began to sob and slide down to the floor.  
  
Spike, thinking he had caused her to cry started to move forward to apologize and comfort her when she looked up again.  
  
"N-No! Stay back! I'm R-Ranma dammit! I'm a g-guy!" she began to cry again, the sobs racking her whole body until she started to hyperventilate. She slipped over to the floor, gasping for breath and vomited violently. Her vision became tinged with black, and blurry as she began to loose consciousness again.  
  
"I-I-I-I'm a g-g-g-guy d-dammit!" She whispered one last time before the blackness took her.  
  
******  
  
Jet sighed. "Well, for whatever reason, she really does believe she's Ranma."  
  
"But Jet, that's impossible! I mean look at her! She's what most women would DREAM to look like! Ranma was a hunk, and she's a fox! That's just not possible!" When Faye realized what she said, she blushed as Spike and Jet looked at her oddly.  
  
"Not that I like Ranma or anything, its just uh, something all girls notice, ok?" Faye looked away.  
  
"Right.. In any case, we better get some clothes on her, and clean up the vomit. Faye, why don't you give her some of you're clothes, I'm sure you have something more... appropriate in your wardrobe for her to wear." Jet said.  
  
"I don't think that's such a good idea Jet." Spike interjected.  
  
"Huh? Why not?" Jet asked.  
  
Spike lit up a cigarette. " Well, if she truly DOES believe she's Ranma, then I doubt she'll respond well to waking up in a dress. I mean look how she went off just seeing she had tits."  
  
"Ok then, what should we do?" Jet asked, putting his hands on his hips.  
  
"Just put the clothes Ranma was wearing on her." Spike said , putting his hands in his pockets and walking away.  
  
"Well who's going to do it?" He said, Faye put her hands behind her head and walked off in the opposite direction as Spike, leaving Jet alone with Ed, and Ein.  
  
Jet hung his head. "Great." He said, "I don't suppose you wanna help me, do you Ein." Ein barked in response, wagging his small stub of a tail.  
  
"Oh well." He said, heading to the bathroom to pick up Ranma's clothes. He came back and, blushing furiously, worked Ranma's limp body into the clothing, placing her on the couch. It was a funny sight to behold really, she looked to be almost swimming in the clothes, as they were made for a man of Spike's height, and she being nearly a foot shorter than Spike.  
  
"What are we going to do with you?" Jet whispered, handing his head. He sighed and decided they had spent enough time on this planet, and it was time to move on.   
  
Jet walked into the command room and prepared the Bebop for launch. He walked into Spike's practice room, and told him of the launch, to which Spike nodded. He knocked on Faye's door, but there was no answer, she was probably asleep, it didn't really matter to him as he walked back and sent the Bebop into orbit.  
  
*****  
  
Authors notes: In case you hadn't noticed, this is a cross between Ranma 1/2 and cowboy bebop.... As well as being my first fanfic to be published..... ^_^;  
  
C & C to ssj_Gotenkun@yahoo.com (comments and praise welcome, flames....... just as good.... at least then I know you're reading it! .)  
  
Website: WWW.Geocities.com/AFF3k (not updated often.... and its very heavy on graphics for those who care...)  
  
More to come soon I hope   
  
JA NE!  
  
Chris AKA PHIP 


	3. Chapter 02

AN – Hey everybody, sorry I couldn't get this out a little quicker for those one or two of you actually reading this story, C&C is still accepted.... I could also use a prereader or two if anyone is interested, you need to be prompt with your reviews.(Send an E-Mail to ssj_gotenkun@yahoo.com if you're interested.)  
  
Chapter two  
  
When Ranma woke up the next morning, he had a stiff neck from sleeping all night on the couch.  
  
"Ugnhh.." Ranma grunted as he sat up, rubbing the stiffness from his neck.  
  
"Where am I?" He asked.  
  
He noticed his pitch seemed to be higher then normal... And his chest seemed a bit heavy as well.  
  
"Aww shit..." He muttered as memories of the previous days came back to haunt him, now a her.  
  
"Man, why did this have to happen to me, especially now?!" Ranma said.  
  
"Finally awake lady?" Spike asked as he plopped down on the opposite couch with a bent cigarette hanging from his mouth, watching Ranma through half lidded eyes.  
  
"Why do you keep calling me that?! I'm Ranma!" She growled, her face starting to turn red and her fists grabbing handfuls of the couch as she started to get angry.  
  
"Ok, well then, Ranma, any idea how this happened?" Jet questioned, ducking his head so he wouldn't hit it as he climbed through the small porthole that led to the gravity chamber.  
  
"How should I know? I was takin' a shower, and all this cold water hit me and then, I dunno, I just... changed..." Ranma adopted a traditional thinking pose, with her fist under her chin, elbow sitting upon her thigh as she pondered the question of her changing of sex.  
  
"What I want to know, is are they real?" Faye walked in, toweling off her damp hair, wearing naught but a bath robe.  
  
"Are what real?"Ranma asked with a questioning look on her face.  
  
She soon realized the folly of asking when Faye started fondling her left breast.  
  
"These. Are they real?" Faye asked.  
  
Ranma blushed furiously when Faye continued her ministrations.  
  
"O-Of course they're real! What else would they be!?" Ranma shouted, causing Faye to back take a few steps back at her outburst.  
  
"Calm down kid, I was just pullin' your leg..." Faye mumbled as she sat next to Spike, letting the towel hang loosely around her neck.  
  
"So, what're gonna do now?" Came the question on everyone's minds, issued from Ranma's mouth.  
  
"Well, I'd say the first thing we do, is to get you back to the way you were before, then we can go after this new bounty, some guy that keeps attacking hospitals looking for someone." Jet stated.  
  
"Well, how do we fix it?" Spike asked, stubbing his cigarette out on the ashtray on the table.  
  
"Spike, what is that?" Ranma pointed to the object Spike had just placed in the ashtray.  
  
"This? It's a cigarette." Spike replied.  
  
"Oh... what's it do?"  
  
"Well, it relaxes you..." Spike said  
  
"Can I have one then? I'll take anything to help calm down." Ranma put his head in his hands, pushing the heels of his palms into his forehead.  
  
Spike looked at Faye and Jet who shrugged.  
  
"Sure, why not." Spike pulled out his pack and juggled one out of the soft paper pack. Ranma took the cigarette from Spike and put it in her mouth, letting Jet light it for him.   
  
As soon as Ranma inhaled the first time, she started coughing, and looking a bit green about the gills.  
  
Faye and Jet laughed, Spike just smiled a little.  
  
"Don't worry kid, that'll pass." Spike said, Ranma nodded and continued attempting to smoke, mimicking Faye's actions that she had seen earlier.  
  
"Now, what're gonna do about this... problem?" Jet asked.  
  
"Edward knows!" Ed shouted, running into the room with her arms raised in the air, making noises like an airplane, with Ein hot on her heels barking at her.  
  
"What? You know what's wrong with me Ed?!" Ranma shouted  
  
"Surely curly do!" Ed returned, grinning like a manic.  
  
"Well, tell us already." Faye glared at the hacker.  
  
"JuSENkYO...heeeeeeee" Ed returned to running in circles making strange noises.  
  
"Jusenkyo...?" Ranma trailed off as a memory returned to her.  
  
It was a memory of a lush green valley, with a small hut to one side of many many springs each with a bamboo pole stuck in each spring.  
  
It was a memory of surfacing from a small pool of water, and feeling something wrong with his balance, and hearing some words obviously garbled, being a fragment of memory.  
  
It was a memory of looking down at his suspiciously large chest, and ripping his dogi open to find a pair of large, round breasts staring back at him.  
  
The memory ended with a burning sensation coming from between her fingers.  
  
She dropped the offending cigarette as the others looked at her oddly.  
  
"Ranma." Spike said.  
  
"Yeah?" Ranma asked, tilting her head up to look at him.  
  
"You ok? You spaced out there for a few minutes there." Spike said.  
  
"Uhh, yeah, I'm fine man..." Ranma answered.  
  
"Alright then... Ed, I want you to find out everything you can about this 'Jusenkyo' place, ok?" Jet asked.  
  
"Okkieee dokkieee artychokieeeee" Ed answered, flopping down Indian style in front of her computer, putting her VR glasses on and began 'surfing the web' for information on Jusenkyo, waving her arms around in a way that would make most brake dancers green with envy.  
  
"As for the rest of you, we're going to track down this latest bounty, he ain't worth much but he'll put food on the table." He said this last part with a glare at Ranma when her stomach grumbled from not eating since the hospital.  
  
"What's his name?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Say's here his name is - " Jet was cut off as Ed yelled.  
  
"Search Commmpleeete!"  
  
Ranma was at her side in an instant.  
  
"Tell me!" He told her.  
  
Faye started reading off of Ed's screen.  
  
"Jusenkyo, a hidden valley of springs in the remote regions of what used to be China. Each spring has its own tragic legend of something that drowned there. Supposedly the legends say that if someone were to fall in one of these springs they would turn into the last thing that drowned there." Faye stopped reading.  
  
"Keep going!" Ranma said.  
  
"That's all there is..." Faye frowned.  
  
"WHAT?! But if that's what happened to me, the there must be a cure right? I mean I can't stay a girl forever, right? RIGHT?" Ranma started to work herself into a frenzy as she walked back to the couch and started to sob.  
  
"Good work Ed, keep looking." Jet whispered to her.  
  
"Common Ranma, buck up, it'll all work out in the end..."  
  
"I knew it couldn't be that easy....." Ranma mumbled.  
  
"What are you talking about Ranma?" Faye asked.  
  
"Nothing, don't worry about it." she responded.  
  
*****  
  
Ranma stood in a small room Spike usually used for training purposes, wearing a pair of VR goggles not unlike Ed always wore, and holding what appeared to be a pistol with a cord running up to the goggles.  
  
Spike leaned against the corner, lazily smoking a cigarette, watching the younger man-turned-woman dive and roll around, apparently doing a training exorcise, having to do with her aim.   
  
'Kid's a fast learner.' Spike mused and he watched Ranma complete a back flip, only to slip on the floor and fall, her head hitting with a resounding 'crack'  
  
"Ouch. That's gotta hurt." Spike commented, smirking slightly.  
  
"Ughn." Was all Ranma was able to manage as she stood slowly from her spot on the floor.  
  
"Here kid."Spike said, flicking Ranma a cigarette and his lighter.  
  
Ranma deftly caught it in the corner of her mouth, swiping the lighter from the air and lighting up, she took a long drag, letting the smoke drift from her mouth slowly.  
  
"Thanks." Ranma mumbled as she let herself slide down the wall next to Spike in a sitting position.  
  
"Hey Spike?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Yeah kid?" Spike answered.  
  
"What did you do, ya know, before you hooked up with Jet and Faye?" She asked, taking another drag off her cigarette, holding it over her drawn up knees.  
  
"Heh. I don't think you wanna know kid." He told her, flicking his stub to the corner of the room, where it bounced and started to drift through the zero gravity back t'words Spike and Ranma.  
  
"Huh. Ok then." Ranma shrugged, and she took up a basic fighting stance she had seen Spike assume, flicking her cigarette in the same manner as him.  
  
"Let's dance then Spike." She grinned.  
  
"What about your aiming practice?" He questioned.  
  
"It can wait a while, right?" Her grin turned to a smirk, "Unless you're scared of course..." With that the two started sparring in the small room, Spike holding nothing back on the teenager, and Ranma fighting on pure instinct alone.  
  
******  
  
Ranma sighed after her workout with Spike. She had lost... again.  
  
'Oh well' She mused, 'There's always next time I guess.'  
  
Ranma rubbed her hands over her cold and fatigued body, trying to rub some warmth into it as she stepped into the shower, preparing to turn it on.  
  
She hesitated for an unknown reason.  
  
Another memory hit her with the force of a truck.  
  
A memory of dodging punches that could crush titanium.  
  
A memory of chains and other assorted sharp objects flying t'words him.   
  
A memory of standing from the dust to his smirking enemy.  
  
"Now Ranma, it ends!" The silhouette sneered at him.  
  
"NOOO!" Someone ran in front of him, he could feel blood that wasn't his own on his face.  
  
The memory ended, leaving her feeling even more tired then she had before.  
  
Puzzling out the possible meanings of her memory, her hand still inches from the handle to turn the shower on, she mentally shrugged, and turned the handle all the way to hot.  
  
*****  
  
"IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Spike fell off the couch he was dosing on as a loud, masculine scream shook the ship.  
  
Feeling an odd sense of deja vu, he hooked up with Jet and Faye on the way to the bathroom running to see what the yelling was about.  
  
The door burst open, Faye was the first one in. She stared at the naked young 'healthy' man sprawled over the floor with a blush slowly creeping over her face.  
  
"What the hell?!" Spike was confused. It had been a few days since they had all rushed in here to find a female Ranma, now they did it again, only to find a male Ranma, something was defiantly wrong about this situation.  
  
Faye turned on her heel and pushed the other two brooding men out of the way, stomping out of the room, mumbling about being disturbed. The real reason she did it was to hide the blush and odd feelings that seeing the boy's... no MAN'S naked body had awakened.  
  
******  
  
"Ugnh..." Ranma said as he slowly woke from a dream to good to be true.  
  
"Welcome back to the land of the living, kid." Spike said lazily sitting on the couch opposite of Ranma, with his legs propped up on the small coffee table between them.  
  
"How long was I out?" He asked slowly, still not realizing his voice had dropped a few pitches.  
  
"Not to long, maybe around an hour or so." Spike responded.  
  
"Huh. Ok good. Means I still got time to practice shooting some more..." He said, flinging his legs over the side of the couch and standing.  
  
It wasn't until he stumbled slightly that he noticed something was different... He wasn't having to compensate for the extra weight on his front... wait... that would mean he didn't have breasts anymore... but that can't be right... Ranma looked down at his chest.  
  
"SCORE!" He shouted, startling Ein from his sleep across the room.  
  
"I was wondering how long it would take ya to notice......." Spike trailed off as Ranma looked down his pants, then rubbed his eyes and looked down them again and again and again.  
  
"Stop it kid, yer startin to freak me out!" Spike said.  
  
"Err, sorry, I just... can't believe it... I'm finally a guy again!" Ranma again started dancing around the room until his foot clipped the couch he was jumping over, sending him crashing down to the floor in a painful fall, head first.  
  
"Ouch... you shouldn't do that, you might hurt yourself one of these days..." Spike smirked at the teen.  
  
"Pffftt, who cares! I'm a guy again!" He again started jumping around the room, albeit a little more slowly and carefully then last time.  
  
He never saw Spikes fresh beer sitting on the table when he went to hug one of his new partners.  
  
As he bent over, the beer spilled all over him, turning him to a her.  
  
Of course, he had yet to notice what had happened in his happiness.  
  
Spike did though as the guy half strangling him grew breasts and they were pressed against him in a VERY arousing manner.  
  
It seemed then, as though Ranma noticed too as she stepped back from Spike with a horrible disappointed look on her face.  
  
She sniffed and walked off to her room to think on what had happen.  
  
"Don't worry kid, we'll get you fixed somehow... I promise..." Spike said. He hadn't felt like this before with another person, a certain kinship he didn't even share with Jet. It was like he thought of Ranma as himself when he was younger... or maybe as a younger brother?  
  
Spike shook those thoughts out of his head as he noticed Ranma had stopped still.  
  
"Thanks... Spike..." She said, and continued to walk to her small room.  
  
'Anytime... kid.' Spike thought back at her, he kicked the small screen on the table, it automatically turned to a certain station.  
  
******  
  
"Hey amigos! How're all you bounty hunters doin?" A black man half yelled, wearing a stupid cowboy outfit. Beside him a woman dressed much the same giggled like a ditz.  
  
"Its time for bigshot! The show for bounty hunters!" The black man said again.  
  
"Ohh Butch what could todays hot tip be?!" Asked the ditzy woman rubbing her hands and butt in a cute – yet ditzy way.  
  
"Well, not much this time I'm afraid everyone... This guy is only worth 1 million woolongs, but that's nothing to sneeze at either..." Butch said.  
  
"He's wanted for destroying over four hospitals!" Butch said in his same annoying voice.  
  
"Hospitals?" The woman repeated, "Why would anyone wanna destroy a hospital?"  
  
Butch shrugged, "Who knows what lays in the mind of a criminal... Anyway hunters, GO GET EM!" He shouted.  
  
Spike turned off the TV.  
  
"Hey Jet!" Spike yelled.  
  
"Yeah Spike?" Jet responded.  
  
"I got the heads-up on that bounty!" Spike yelled, sticking a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it with a smooth motion, taking a slow drag and letting the smoke curl out of his mouth as Jet walked into the small room, wiping his hands with a dirty rag.  
  
"Really? What is it?" Jet asked, leaning against the door frame.  
  
"He's on Mars, his bounty went up too, looks like he destroyed another hospital, so its up to one million." Spike told Jet.  
  
Jet grinned, "Guess we should get goin then huh?" Jet turned around walking to the ships small bridge and programmed a course to Mars.  
  
Walking back to the small room Jet asked Spike, "Hey have you seen the kid around? I wanted to give him a few pointers before we go after this guy."  
  
"Yeah, she's in her room." Spike said.  
  
"She? I thought that he was a he again?" Jet asked.  
  
"Not anymore." Spike returned shrugging.  
  
"Oh... ok..." Jet walked to Ranma's room, putting his ear against the door. Hearing nothing he knocked lightly with his metal arm.  
  
The door opened slightly revealing the red head that Jet had had to dress back when she first appeared.  
  
"Yeah?" She asked.  
  
"Hey kid, listen we're going after this bounty on Mars and I figured you wanna come with us, so come with me and I'll give ya a few pointers." Jet said.  
  
"Ok..." She said closing her room door behind her.  
  
"Don't forget to remind me kid, we need to getcha some new clothes, Spike's suit hardly fit you when you were a guy, much less when yer a chick..." Jet grimaced when he saw Ranma's face turn into a scowl at the mention of her predicament.  
  
"Sure thing Jet." She said.  
  
******  
  
END CHAPTER  
  
AN- AHHH sorry this chapter is shorter than normal.... I just figured that this was a good place to end and all o.O  
  
Anyway, next chapter and the one after it should defiantly be interesting. wanna know what happens? TO BAD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA o.O  
  
Thanks to tannim for hosting my poor, sad excuse for a fic and to my first reviewer who actually wrote me this huge review of just the proleauge, telling me that Faye's ship wasn't actually blown up, it just ran outta air and all, as well as telling me all about the 'deep sleep' she was in. I'd like to thank him a lot for it, and let everyone know that a major rewrite is planned....  
  
Anyway, that's it until next time! Expect the next chapter within two weeks(I write around the schedule that tannim updates... Why? Hell if I know, I just do! 


	4. Chapter 03

Living in the Dark  
  
Chapter 3  
  
AN- Hey guys, I know it's been a while, but bear with me on this chapter, I originally had the third chapter almost complete and then had to reformat my computer and lost the file, but I probably would have scrapped it anyway, I like how this one is going a bit better than the other one....  
  
On a personal note, forgive me if some of this chapter seems a little strange.... see I broke my thigh bone a while back, and they stuck a metal rod in my leg, so I take a lot of painkillers(ultraset, oxiconton, and hydrocodon, and the occasional Valium.) and tonight my knee was KILLING me so I popped about 5 hydrocodon(It takes at least that to do anything for me, I've built up an immunity to it) and a zoloft, so right now, I feel like I'm on crack, on the plus side, my writing speed just doubled and the ideas in my head for the story are swirling so you may get this chapter and the next one prty quickly! Or at least I hope so, and if not, I'll just pop some more pills and get back to the writing for my 4-5 fans out there....  
  
A hospital on Mars  
  
"Where is he!?" The man screamed at the small orderly wearing scrubs behind the hospital desk.  
  
"Who?" The man squeaked as he was being violently shaken by the brute in front of him with fire in his eyes.  
  
"HIM!" The first man pulled a small picture out of him pocket, it looked torn and crumpled from contentious use.  
  
"I-I've never seen him before!" The orderly attempted to cower, although it was rather difficult considering the fact that he was being held a few feet off the ground by the stranger's left arm.  
  
"You tell me, or I'll kill you and destroy this entire hospital!" The stranger screamed, even louder than before.  
  
"I swear I don't know!" The orderly shreked.  
  
"THEN YOU AND EVERYONE HERE DIES!" The stranger yelled as loud as he could. Several security officers, having finally noticed the disturbance, raced to aid the poor orderly.  
  
Spike yawned deeply as he sat on the couch in front of the screen that passed for a television in the future, watching it through only half-lidded eyes. It was turned to MNS, or Mars news station. He yawned again as he watched an attractive thirty-year old woman   
  
talking about some kind of freak accident on the planet they were currently orbiting over.  
  
"-Truly, a horrible accident. In other news today, another hospital, this one on Mars, has been destroyed, authorities haven't made any arrests yet, but based on eye-witness accounts from the few survivors, it was the same man who had destroyed four others. In response to this, the authorities have risen the bounty on him from one million woolongs, to four million. It makes this reporter wonder, what kind of man would destroy a hospital, and kill hundreds of helpless people? Moving on..."   
  
A click was heard as Spike shut the television off, and rose to his feet slowly.  
  
"OY! JET!" Spike yelled, his voice reverberating throughout the entire ship.  
  
Jet's head poked out from the small ship's kitchen.  
  
"Yeah?" He asked curiously, Spike didn't yell unless there was a good reason for it.  
  
"Our man's price went up again, four mill this time.   
  
"Well, looks like we're gunna haveta move our asses and get 'em before someone else does." Jet mused.  
  
"I'll go and check-up on the kid then." Spike turned to leave.  
  
"You sure seem to like him, err her, Spike." Jet said.  
  
"Just don't want Ranma ta get killed on his first job, is all." Spike replied, lighting a cigarette, and shoving his hands into his pockets as he walked off to find the topic of their discussion, unknowing of Jet's smirk at his answer.  
  
"Hey kid!" Spike greeted Ranma as he found the girl in her usual place, the training room, practicing a few punches and kicks Spike had taught her. Ranma's balance was disrupted as Spike entered and surprised her, causing her to fall and hit her head.  
  
"Common boy! You can do better than that!" Ranma found her- no HIMself fighting an older, bald man, wearing a white training Gi that was turned Grey from use.  
  
Fighting styles started to flow into his mind, as if a door to a part of his mind had been unlocked.  
  
"Bring it on, old man!" He found himself saying.  
  
"-ma! Ranma! Snap out of it man!" Spike's voice brought her back from the memories of her past as she shook her head and stared at him.  
  
"You ok kid?" Spike asked.  
  
".......I know kung fu..." she answered.  
  
"....What?" Spike asked intelligently.  
  
Ranma got off the ground and grinned widely. All of a sudden, her mind had been filled with styles of martial arts.  
  
"Common Spike, lets spar." Ranma stated, while moving into a tight aggressive posture.  
  
"Uh, ok..." Spike put up his fists and began to jump lightly on the balls of his feet.  
  
That was all the encouragement Ranma needed, as she rushed to Spike, feinting to the left, then the right, and finally, hitting the ground in an attempt to sweep Spike off his feet.  
  
Spike just barley saw through the two feints, and managed to jump over the sweep with difficulty, 'Since when was the kid THIS good?!' Spike screamed mentally, it seemed he would be in for one hell of a fight this time around.  
  
After the sweep was dodged, Ranma wasted no time, she quickly recovered her foot, and while still on the ground, planted her hands and pushed up, flinging both of her feet into the air, and hitting Spike square in the chest, as he hadn't managed to recover from his jump.  
  
Ranma used the kick to propel herself into a back flip to a standing position, standing casually with smirk on her face, waiting for Spike to shake it off.  
  
Spike did just that, a look of annoyance crossing his features, before he smirked as well, finally he would get a good fight from someone!  
  
Ranma waited while Spike charged, his mind running through dozen of different moves, and counters that he could use to stop Spike's headlong charge.  
  
Using his momentum from the charge, Spike pivoted on his left foot, bringing his right leg into a crane stance for just an instant, before jumping into the air and rolling his body to the right, extending his left foot in a kick that could very well break up to three of Ranma's ribs, that is, if it had connected. Ranma had interpreted the move for what it was, and while Spike's foot was an extremely fast blur, Ranma was still faster,she jumped into the air and kicked Spike straight in the face, sending him sprawling onto the ground, signaling the end of the sparring match.  
  
"Damn kid, how the hell did you get so good?! Just yesterday, I could beat your ass without to much trouble, and now I'm getting my ass handed to me as if I were a toddler!" Spike wheezed, attempting to catch his breath after all, taking such a impact on the floor of the spaceship could knock out the breath of even the most resilient of fighters, and if Spike had been any less resilient than he was, the kick alone could have broken his jaw, and the impact maybe even crippling him for life, as it was he was having trouble moving and breathing regularly.  
  
"You sure do pack a punch kid...." Spike sighed after taking a few more moments to regain his breath and full movement of his body, sitting up and propping himself against the wall of the improvised 'training room'.  
  
Ranma looked on in concern, she hadn't thought she had hit Spike THAT hard.  
  
"Well, when you startled me and I fell over, hit my head on the floor, and got knocked out for a few moments, I was able to actually remember sparring with this old guy, I dunno, I think he mighta been my dad or something, he was fat and bald, and then in an instant I remembered all kinds of fighting techniques..... What was the name of my school again? Hmmmm..... I know it, its on the tip of my tounge. OH YEAH! I think I was supposed to be like the heir of the 'Saotome school of anything goes martial arts'. Or something like that at least.  
  
Spike blinked and lit up a cigarette, throwing Ranma one as well, she nodded her thanks and they both lit their smokes, and took a drag, Ranma taking a seat in front of Spike.  
  
"Hey man, you ok? I didn't really mean to hit you THAT hard, you don't have any major injuries do ya?" She asked, with a hint of concern in voice, that, thankfully to Ranma, Spike failed to notice.  
  
"Bah, I've had worse, I was shot twice and got back up from it, a simple kick to my jaw, and a bone jarring impact on the floor isn't to bad." Spike chuckled, Ranma soon joined him.   
  
They laughed like that a few moments before Spike attempted to get up and return to the couch for a little rest, or at least that was what he told Ranma, the real reason was that he needed to go to his cabin before he felt like he was going to start crying in pain. He quickly decided to pick up some painkillers on the way to his cabin.  
  
Or at least that's what he had planned to do, and according to Murphy's law, as he tried to stand he realized just how injured he really was, got about two steps from where he first stood, and began to fall to the ground.   
  
Luckily for Spike, Ranma had anticipated something of the sort and lept up from her sitting position and caught Spike before he hit the floor, unfortunately, or possibly even more fortunately, depending on who you asked, Ranma, temporarily forgetting he was now a she, tried catching Spike from in front of him, so Spike found himself in between the shorter girls large, and perfectly formed breasts.  
  
It took Spike a few moments to realize where he was and what had just happened, before springing backwards, a small blush on his face.  
  
From the time Spike's head had lodged itself between her breasts, she seem paralyzed, when she noticed the slight blush on Spike's face, which was rather hard to do, seeing as how he was bowing constantly, and apologizing profusely, still slightly in shock, her instincts took over and waved it off to Spike, telling him it was no big deal, and then Spike walked out, stumbling slightly, just as he walked out of the room, he remembered why he had sought Ranma out in the first place. And reentered the room to see a sight that was somewhat disturbing, Ranma, with a slightly curious expression on her face, was poking her self in the breast.  
  
Spike coughed lightly to inform her of his presence, Ranma's head popped up instantly, her hand shooting to her side, and a heavy blush on her face.  
  
"Uh, hey kid, I, uh forgot to tell you when I came in, but that bounty we're after, well he destroyed another hospital and killed a buncha people, so they raised his bounty to four million woolongs, so Jet figures we should get our asses in gear and find him before someone else can manage to beat us to the punch, and I remembered that you still haven't got your own gun, so I was gonna show you to the ships mini-armory, wear we keep you know, all our uh...." Spike trailed off as Ranma seemed to unintentionally start breathing hard, at the prospect of his first job drawing near, doing some interesting things to her breasts.  
  
Realizing who's breasts it was that he was staring at, Spike's eyes shot up to Ranma's eyes, and noticed the same curious expression he had seen moments ago.  
  
"Spike you ok? You seem... distracted" Ranma asked.  
  
"Oh, uhm, I'm fine, just follow me so we can get you a gun and some ammo, kid." Spike replied  
  
The strange duo walked through the ship until Spike stopped suddenly, causing Ranma to almost crash into him, but was able to stop herself and avoiding a possibly embarrassing accident, Ranma looked around, but didn't seen anything special about the hallway they were in, she had passed thorough here man times before and hadn't see anything.  
  
"Where's the armory Spike?"Ranma asked, exasperated at how it looked like Spike had no idea where he was going.  
  
"Right here, kid." Spike pointed to a section of the wall.  
  
"I don't see anything...." Ranma replied.  
  
Spike smirked, and pressed a button the was hidden on top a pipe that ran along the ceiling of the ship.  
  
Suddenly the section of the wall Spike had motioned at slid to the side, revealing a large space, slightly depressed into the wall, holding a small catch of grenades, pistols, sub-machine guns, two assault rifles, and a few boxes of ammunitions for the weapons.  
  
Ranma sweat dropped at the amount of weapons, there were only four of them on the ship that would be holding weapons and yet in this small catch, there were enough weapons to arm almost two platoons of soldiers, frankly it creeped her out a bit that they would have so many.  
  
"Errr Spike?" Ranma stuttered slightly, still in shock at seeing them all.  
  
"Yeah kid?" Spike returned grabbing a couple of breatta 9mm pistols, shoving a clip into each, and popping a round into each chamber, before grabbing another four extra clips of ammo, and finally topping it off with an MP5 sub-machine gun, and two extra clips for it as well.  
  
"Why are there so many weapons in here?"She asked, having recovered from her surprise.  
  
"Well, whenever we capture a bounty we.....'liberate' their weapons and store them here, besides you can never be to prepared, right?  
  
Ranma blinked at the answer then shrugged and decided to pick out what she wanted for her first bounty hunt.  
  
To begin with, she grabbed a hunting knife out of a small case under the guns, sheathed it in it's leather sheath, and strapped it to the outside of her calf, and the pulled her pants leg over it, obscuring it from view. Second, taking from Spike's example she pulled out a pair of breattas and loaded them, popping the round into the chamber, flicking the safeties on, and after snapping on a holster onto the left side of her torso and on the back of her belt, holstered both weapons.  
  
"Nice choice kid, I don't think you'll be needing any automatics, its only one guy after all, I just prefer to be prepared in case he's found himself some.....'friends'. Spike grinned before throwing the MP5's strap around his shoulder and walked into what passed for a living room on their small ship.  
  
When Ranma followed Spike and entered the room, she was treated to the strange sight of Faye and Jet locking and loading their weapons of choice. Ranma only had a brief glance at what faye was carrying before she somehow managed to conceal it all Which was no small feat considering the small amount of clothes she was wearing. A pair of throwing knives hung from her hip, a small backup pistol hidden on the inside of her right boot, and a pistol on the back inside of the red jacket she seemed so fond of.  
  
Jet, however, was the one that really surprised him, he was checking the sights of his M25 sniper rifle, complete with night vision scope and 20 round clip. Working the bolt, he chambered a round and set it aside in a small case that looked suspiciously nondescript. From a small brown paper bag, he poured out three grenades which he hid in his cargo pant's pockets. To top it all off he polished off a chopped off assault rifle, loaded, chambered a round and stood up.  
  
"Ed, you know where our boy is yet?" Jet growled to the small girl sitting in front of her computer wearing her usual black spandex shorts and white teeshirt, topping it off with her green VR goggles, making odd motions with her arms, almost as if she was attempting to swim like a.....frog? Ranma sweat dropped once again at this.  
  
"Ed!" Jet said a bit louder this time.  
  
"Ed is looking, Ed is almost done!" She said in her annoyingly cute voice, and for some reason, every time Ed refered to herself in the third person, it make Ranma extremely irate and even slightly angry at the young girl. And for the life of her, Ranma couldn't figure out why, all he could think of was that every time she DID refer to herself as 'Ed', Ranma's mind's eye pictured a blurry outline of a girl with long purple hair.  
  
Ranma shook it off and proceded to walk over to Ed's corner in which she had placed her computer, the ship's dog, Ein, sitting comfortable in her lap, watching Ranma almost lazily.  
  
Peering at the computer screen, Ranma saw only a bunch of what seemed to be random objects floating in some kind of water, occasionally a fish or some bubbles would float by. If Ranma had been more technologically adept he would have realized that the appearance of the fish, bubbles and the 'water' were simply a background set by ed, and the random objects floating around were in fact, high level government files, detailing the last known locations, and all the crimes of nearly all the criminals in the known solar system. Unfortunatly though, she wasn't more technologically adept and so she simply watched the objects pass back and a slowly increasing speed, before getting bored and decided that Ed was simply wasting their time.  
  
"Ed found it!" Ed jumped up suddenly, doing a back flip from a sitting position into a handstand, sending poor Ein flying in the air, until Ranma caught him and placed him on the floor of the ship and watched him scamper off irately before settling on the couch, attempting another nap, after being so rudely awakened from his first one.  
  
"What'd you find Ed?" Faye asked the smaller girl, who was still walking around on her hands and craning her neck to look at the text on her computer screen.  
  
"Ed found out where the bad-man is going to go next!" The small girl squealed happily.  
  
"And where would that be Ed?" Spike asked, taking a long drag off a cigarette.  
  
"Right..... HERE!" Ed shoved a map into Spike face, surprising him, and causing him to drop his cigarette into his lap where he immediately began hopping around franticly attempting to make his pants stop smoking, he began to panic as he noticed the slowly burning hole in his pants was spreading.... directly to his groin.  
  
(Remember boys and girls: Cotton burns.... Quickly...)  
  
As Spike continued to jump around screaming in the background, Ranma, Faye, and Jet set the map on the table to have a closer look at it, yet another hospital was circled in red, ironically Ranma noticed, it was the same hospital that he had spent his first days awakening in this world at... He began wondering if that was a conicendence or not, but quickly pushed it to the back of his mind as Jet began going over their plan of action.  
  
AN- Well here it is finally! Chapter 3 of my fan fiction, Living in the dark.  
  
This fic, as all of mine are, were inspired from reading any of of the hundreds of amazingly good Ranma ½ fanfics one can find, that is if one knows were to looked  
  
(Insert shameless plug) My website for )  
  
I don't really have anyone to thank, seeing as how I have no prereaders or anything, but I guess I WOULD like to thank anyone and everyone who reads my fic, and decides to be so kind as to give me a bit of C&C  
  
BTW: I'm sorry its a lot shorter than normal again, its 7:08 in the morning and those painkillers I took at 2AM(read above authors notes) are running out, and I'm starting to crash.... hard, so I'll be luck if I don't pass out before finishing the spell check, lol  
  
Once again, thanks to every one who reads this, for those of you interested, hopefully the next chapter will be out soon, as look as I don't get sidetracked and my muse doesn't leave me....  
  
Wanna comment on my fic? Wanna flame my horrible writing skills? Go right ahead!  
  
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That's it for now guys, have a good day, don't let self doubt interfere with your plans to improve your live, and may the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house!  
  
Chris Miller AKA Phip 


	5. Chapter 04

Living in the dark – Chapter 4

Hey guys, I'm back again with another chapter of Living in the dark(I just love that title...) Anyways, I was reading a few reviews from , and I'd like to thank them for reviewing, and I noticed someone asked to me to spell check my document. Well, I do ). The last chapter was written and updated at 5-7am I was coming down off my small painkiller high and was quickly running out of steam, I was lucky I even managed to do the first spell check and get it posted, this time around I'm starting a bit earlier so hopefully I won't crash and pass out before I finish, hehe.

Also, normally when taking on a bounty in Cowboy bebop, Spike and Jet confront them personally, but I know for a fact that if someone tried to do that in real life, they would die pretty quick, so I've decided to change their style of hunting into a slightly more practical kind. If that doesn't work for your mind, then here's an 'in character explanation' their target has destroyed four hospitals and came out without a scratch. They realize how dangerous their target is, and are adapting accordingly. Ok well ON WITH THE STORY!

Ranma fiddled with the black trench coat she wore over her new pair of clothes that Jet and Spike had thoughtfully bought her. She had decided to let the pigtail out into a ponytail to go with the black sleeveless Chinese shit, complete with small wooden toggles, she wore a pair of baggy blackout style camo pants, complete with a black belt around her waist and a pair of combat boots.

Ranma had lucked out big time, it seemed almost as though she had come across a store made just for her, everything inside was made with an extremely sturdy type of fabric that expanded and contracted with the body, she grinned again as she looked down at the way the clothes fit her so well, now if only she could figure out how to be a guy again, she would know if they still fit, or if the old, white-haired Chinese lady on the staff behind the register was lying to her.

It had surprised Ranma when she walked into the small clothing store, the sign itself was in Chinese, so she couldn't read what it said, but went in anyway, almost as if drawn to it.

The old woman behind the register seemed startled when the bell rang, signaling a customer. It was odd, she thought. She hadn't had a single customer in the one hundred and fifty-seven years since she had taken over the shop from her own mother.

The woman's eyes widened as she beheld the young red-head browsing her collection, it was all a bit old, thought Ranma, but looked quite sturdy, and the prices were extremely dirt cheap as well.

Ranma walked up to the counter with her selection, her eyes roaming around slightly as she completed the few steps needed to her destination. She finally noticed the old woman staring at her.

"Oy, old lady, how much I owe ya?" Ranma asked, stifling a yawn at the fresh, warm summer day.

With a twinkle in her eye, the old lady replied, "For you my dear, ten woolongs." Ranma's face twisted into one of confusion, and thought for a moment or two. Decided who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth? He handed her the 10 woolongs and went into the other room to change. When she came out, she looked into the mirror. Something about it all seemed off slightly, she stared in annoyance for a few moments before realizing what it was, she smirked and let down the pigtail, instead tieing it into a loose ponytail the fell almost to her lower back. Striking a small post she looked at herself and smirked again, she couldn't wait until she was a guy again to see how she looked in them.

The lady grinned when she saw Ranma step out of the dressing room. She was sure it was he-who-escaped-tradition to her long ago grandmother, Xian pu. She grinned again; she would keep a close eye on this one.

As Ranma started to walk out the front entrance to the store, she heard a withered voice speak from behind her.

"The clothes were made for Jusenkyo victims, it will fit both your forms perfectly, young man." Ranma whirled around, looking for the owner of the voice. After looking around for a few more seconds, she shrugged and walked out of the store, sticking her hands into her trench coat pockets, her pistols flapping against her back and torso, her new ponytail swaying in the slight breeze as she walked to where she would meet her friends and partners.

Ranma finally stopped fiddling with her clothing as she heard footsteps approaching; she was in a rather secluded area just outside the target hospital, so that meant it was either Spike, or some unknown assailant.

Ranma breathed a small sigh of relief as she saw the brown hair, in Spike's style, but then froze as the foliage parted slightly and she noticed a yellow and black bandanna on the currently unknown figure's forehead. Another memory passed through his mind, seeming to pass right behind his eyes.

A memory of a scream of rage as the last thing he saw was the yellow and black bandanna as he prepared himself for the end, he waited for the final blow that would finish it all for him, and all of his problems would finally be over.

A memory of another scream, this time terror, he couldn't be sure but he didn't think it had come from him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" The voice rang out clearly in his head, and in shock he opened his eyes to behold a sight, that, had he not lost his memories soon after, would have haunted his dreams until the day that he died. As it was, even with his eyes opened, the whole event seemed to pass by in a blur. He saw a white blur in front of him, and a red blur, that couldn't stop in time to save the white blur, all of a sudden things snapped into focus, he saw a red umbrella sticking out from the back of...HER. Blood showered his face and clothes, still in shock he stood there standing, staring at...HER. She was dead, instantly, and without pain, and in doing so, she had saved his miserable excuse for a life. It wasn't fair, it can't be true, it can't be true.

Ranma was about to start panicking, when he heard a bunch garbled words from in front of...HER. He couldn't understand them, and as soon as his eyes left the gaping hole in...HER... chest, things went out of focus again.

He trembled with rage, tears threatening to spill onto his cheeks, however, as his anger continued to go, so did the large red, burning aura that surrounded him. The small, unspilled tears in his eyes were evaporated nearly instantly as he looked upon the new bane of his existence, he still couldn't figure out exactly who the blurred figure in front of him was, who ever it was, would pay. Yes, they would pay very dearly indeed for what they had just done to him.

Ranma let out a roar that shattered the windows on each side of the narrow street they were standing on, causing his bane of existence to drop to his knees, covering its ears. That was when Ranma decided to strike; he jumped at it with every ounce of strength he possessed, prepared to destroy the thing that had caused him so much grief.

"Hey kid! Not again... WAKE UP DAMNIT!" Spike slapped the frozen form of Ranma-chan a few times, before she finally snapped out of it.

Ranma blinked a few times before focusing on Spike, and noticing the bandanna he wore around his forehead.

"Spike, where did you get that?" Ranma asked.

"Get what?" Spike raised an eyebrow lazily.

"That." Ranma pointed at his forehead.

"This? I bought it at some little shop downtown on my way here. Nice threads by the way." Spike took a step back and looked Ranma up and down, and walked around her.

"Defiantly looks better on you then my old suite." Spike nodded to himself.

"Thanks, so, what next?" Following Spike's lead, she proceeded to chamber check her pistols to make sure there was indeed a round ready to be fired.

"Now kid, we wait." Spike took a seat on a rock, luckily they were on a slightly raised hill, which gave them a perfect view of the hospital, the trees and tall grass would hide them from view to anyone who was looking.

Spike handed Ranma a small headset. Ranma took Spike's lead once again; she put it in her ear and pressed the small switch on the side to 'on'.

"Yo, Jet you all set?" Spike called into the small transceiver.

Ranma heard a snort into the receiver, " Cocked, locked, and ready to rock, I was born set for this stuff Spike.", She couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the answer, before realizing something.

"Hey Spike, where's Jet and Faye at, anyway? I don't see 'em anywhere's." Ranma asked Spike, leaning her back against a large boulder, and crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Jets on top of the roof with his M25, he's gunna give us cover in case this thing goes sour, a guy who destroys four hospitals all by himself, and not one scratch, gotta be pretty dangerous fella to do something like that. And Fayes flyin air cover, if things get REALLY messy, we call her in and she covers our escape." Spike answered without turning his eyes from the hospital entrance.

"Oh." Was all Ranma said, after all, if even the easy-going Spike was this tense about this job, then she would defiantly have to watch herself when they went up against this guy. She patted the outside of her trench coat, making sure her pistols were still in the right place, satisfied, she turned her eyes back to the targeted hospital.

"Guys, I think I got somethin." Jet's voice came over the headset. Ranma narrowed her eyes at the news, Spike simply lit up a cigarette, he turned and handed one to Ranma, before taking a long drag and jumped agily from rock to rock to the bottom of the hill.

Ranma followed behind Spike into a small crowded café, leaping over the small gate that lead to the hill behind them. A waiter turned in surprise at the man and woman who had appeared in front of him, and stumbled, sending the contents of his platter at the young woman.

Ranma blinked as he felt himself flinch after feeling a slight burning sensation as the hot tea hit now masculine face, he looked to confirm his suspicions.

"Hey cool, I'm a guy again!" Spike turned quickly at Ranma's shout, as the waiter's eyes rolled back into his head and he fell over.

"What happened?" Spike asked.

"I dunno, the guy over there tripped and I got hit with…" He licked his lips, "Hot tea, and now I'm a guy again!" Ranma grinned.

"Well, we'll have to look into it later on." Spike replied turning around and navigating his way though the small but shocked crowd.

"Ok Jet, talk to me." Spike spoke into his headset.

"Target located, about three hundred feet to your left, wait, someone else is approaching him." Jet replied.

"What are they doing now?" Spike asked.

"They're just talking, I'm not sure but from the looks of it they know each other, I'd recommend moving in from both sides and try not to clue them in on your presence until you have to, and Spike? Jet said.

"Yeah Jet?" Spike asked.

"Try not to kill him this time ok? We could use the money a lot." Spike could feel Jet's grin through the headset.

"Heh, no promises buddy." Spike replied.

Ranma, who had remained quiet throughout the conversation, could feel the adrenalin pumping through his veins in preparation of the upcoming fight.

"Alright kid," Ranma's head jerked up, his musings interrupted by Spike's voice.

"I want you to go in from the left, I'll come in from the right, I want you to hang back for now, if I need your help, I'll call for ya, ok? Spike turned to Ranma.

"Sure thing Spike." Ranma replied, jogging off to where Spike had motioned Ranma to wait.

"Alright people, here we go." Spike said, moving determinedly to where the target was sitting with another boy, who looked to be about the same age.

"'Scuse me fellas." Spike interrupted their conversation as he put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head to look at the two.

"You want somethin?" The target looked up and said in a deep gruff voice, followed quickly by his friend's, focusing on Spike.

"Actually I do, I just need ya to stand up, and place your hands over your head real quiet like, so I don't have to disturb the other people around here by killing you." Spike said with a grin.

The target looked confused for a moment before a look of understanding came over his face, finally settling into a sneer.

"Oh, just another weak little bounty hunter eh? HA, why don't you run off somewhere, before I have to bash your face in eh?" The boy kept his sneer while casually rising from his seat across from the other boy, the first motioned to the second that he had it under control, before cracking his neck in preparation of the fight.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, sorry, but you understand, bills to pay and stuff like that, after all." Spike's knuckles cracked as well.

Rather than answering the boy rushed Spike with an uppercut that could have easily lifted Spike off his feet if he had been any slower. Luckily, Spike saw it coming and danced away from the fist before bringing up his guard and dancing lightly on the balls of his feet.

The boy snorted as Spike sent a few quick jabs, all where blocked, as was the retaliatory right punch from the teen, Spike realized his error in doing so when the punch almost broke his guard, and upgraded the boy's threat level.

Spike danced into the younger boy's guard, throwing a round house, followed by a crescent kick. Both connected and the boy shrugged them off just as quickly, quickly kicking into Spike's currently undefended right side, sending spittle from Spike's mouth as he was knocked a few feet to the left before regaining his balance.

"That was your last warning bounty hunter, now get lost." The young man stated, not having brought his leg down yet from its extended position.

Spike grinned and charged him again, throwing using his momentum to spin, launching a powerful kick at his opponent's head, it connected, distracting the boy long enough for Spike to punch knee him in the gut, before Spike grabbed the boy's head and brought it down into another knee, sending the boy reeling.

Taking advantage of the situation, Spike dropped to the ground, effectively sweeping the boy's feet out from under him. The boy proved himself to be no slouch however, as he caught himself on the way down by performing a back handspring into a standing position, his guard up and a stern look on his face.

The boy ran to Spike who had a smug expression on his face as he dodged the opening punch to his chest, and redirected the kick meant to strike the same part of his ribcage as before, but he missed the back handed fist to his temple, sending him flying to the ground and spots to fill his vision.

Out of the corner of his vision, Spike saw Ranma begin to step forward to take over from where he had hidden himself among the ring of spectators, Spike groaned, and shook his head at Ranma, before speaking into the headset.

"Jet lets get out of here, there's nothing short of lethal force that'll stop this guy." Spike knew when he was outclassed, he thought Ranma might have a chance against him, but as the boy was still regaining his memories, he didn't want to risk Ranma taking to much damage.

"WHAT! You wanna give up? Who are you and where is Spike?" Spike winced at Jets yell, and look to see the target looking at him, waiting for him to get up and continue the fight.

Finally Spike stood up and looked at the boy, "We'll be seeing each other again soon, I promise you that." Spike stated sticking his hands in his pockets and limping away into the crowd.

The boy looked confused for a second before shrugging and sitting back at the table his companion still occupied, looking none the worse for ware.

A/N:BUWAHAHAHHAHAH betcha didn't expect me to end it there didja? Huh? DIDJA!

Anyways, the reason I ended it there will be explained in the next chapter…. So will Spike's OOCness at simply giving up a fight, and why he wouldn't let Ranma intervene.

All in all, I think it was a good chapter, though I admit that it sure as hell did take me a long time to write it out huh? Why? Hell if I know, I just didn't feel like writing for the last…. Year or so. is screwing with my e-mail addy, so check previous chapters if you'd like to email me with your C&C and flames.


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